WHY IS RECORDING EEG, STUDYING
QEEG, AND TRAINING THROUGH NEUROFEEDBACK BRAIN IMPORTANT ?

By studying the EEG, the QEEG
report, and training the brain improvements can be accomplished in mood,

motivation, attention, cognitive functioning and a general feeling of well
being.

Below are frequently asked
questions and answers. Please read down the page.

What is
Biofeedback?

Biofeedback is a method of
learning to self- regulate. The simplest form might be holding a 99¢
thermometer in your hand. Tell yourself to warm your hands and watch the
temperature increase. It works! With practice, you can learn to increase the
temperature of your hands more and more. You can learn other biofeedback methods
such as relaxing to slow your heart beat. With advanced computer aided
biofeedback learning, you can learn increase or decrease vital physiological
conditions.

What is
Neurofeedback?

Neurofeedback began in 1970
when Dr. Stearman, a professor at UCLA, began training mice to do a task and
receive a reward based on making a certain brain condition. In the 44 years
since Dr. Sterman’s first studies there have literally been thousands of
research articles about the process. These articles prove the positive impact of
training the brain to reregulate.

The method is also called EEG
Biofeedback. It uses automatic conditioning to enable a person to learn to
change the way the brain operates simply and easily. Think of it this way: you
were not born with an automatic reflex to put your foot on the brake when
another car suddenly pulls out in front of you. You were not born knowing how to
play Mozart on the piano. In both cases, you practiced and learned the task.
With Neurofeedback, you learn to do a task guiding your body and your brain to
do the task at hand. Neurofeedback is training the brain to re-regulate itself
as it was created to do.The
training is automatic as the brain naturally moves toward regulation.

What goes
on inside my brain?

The brain is a complex but
elegantly created organ. It weighs about 3 ½ pounds. It is a fatty, watery
organ laced with blood vessels and nerve fibers inside a hard shell, the skull. It
consumes 60% of the glucose the body produces. As the chemistry in the brain
operates, electricity is generated. We call this electricity, “Brain Waves,”
or technically, electroencephalography (EEG). When you take a pill, this changes
the blood chemistry. When we train the brain, the brain waves are changed toward
better regulation. In turn, the blood chemistry also changes.

What are
“Brain Waves?”

The brain is our body’s
master computer. It is far more elegant and complex than the fastest man made
super computer. Computer aided EEG measurement reveals much about the way the
brain operates. The brain makes “frequencies” governing different activities
from sleep to deep concentration to creative problem solving.Brain waves are grouped in bands: Delta, Theta, Alpha and Beta. There are
no “bad frequencies,” but for example, if there is too much Delta in the
daytime, the person will be slow and lethargic. Theta
is related to creative problem solving, but continued Theta puts a person in a
dreamlike state, inattentive.Alpha
is idling, prayerful, and meditative, but too much Alpha makes a blunted
response, out of touch. Beta is cognitive functioning, but too much Beta causes
anxiety.

Brainwaves regulate how well
you can pay attention, and how much you are aroused. The brain waves need to be
flexible to adjust to the task at hand. If your brain cannot adjust to the task
at hand, it lacks flexibility. If there is too much arousal, the brain cannot
settle to deep concentration. Too much arousal leads to the inability to relax.Arousal, frustration, number of tasks, and the pace of life can lead the
brain to deregulate. A deregulated brain can lead to anxiety, depression,
insomnia, and poor concentration.

With the fast computers we
have at the present time, brainwaves can be recorded from all of the twenty
major parts of the brain in real time. In this real time environment, we can do
feedback to cause the brain to reregulate improving its functioning. When the
regulation is improved, psychological functioning is improved.

What
causes the brain to get “messed up?”

The brain gets pushed out of
regulation by illness, physical or emotional distress, and injury either to the
body or to the brain from a whack to the head. In other cultures with a steady
pace in life and long term stability in work and residence, research shows the
brain to be very stable over many years of life. In today’s complex culture
and fast pace, the brain can become deregulated just from trying to do
everything and keep up with the fast pace.

Stress without distress is
motivating. Continued stress without relief causes distress. Distress causes the
brain to decrease regulation.Poor
nutrition, lack of physical activity, and toxic substances are known to cause
the brain to deregulate. Correcting
the internal environment is part of the solution: enough rest, good food, and
good physical functioning. Improving the brain’s regulation and improving
relationships with significant people in our lives is the rest of the solution.

One lady after a few sessions
said, “I can tell you are tuning up my brain, but I have to change the way I
think.” A week later she said, “Tuning up my brain is enabling me to change
the way I think.” Enabling the brain to regulate better, in itself, does not
automatically change the way a person thinks. Talking through a situation
combined with neurofeedback is an effective method of improving cognitive and
emotional processes.

When there has been emotional
trauma, the brain tries to compensate, but it may become stuck. Being stuck
means doing the same things and re-experiencing the same things with the same
unhappy result.Doing neurofeedback
frees the brain from a stuck pattern and enables the person to move forward.

How do
prescription drugs affect my brain?

If your Doctor advises you to
take a prescription, he believes this will help you right now. Think of this
like snow chains. When we have ice and snow in the area, putting on chains
enables you to go, but once the ice is gone, the chains actually slow your
progress. Drugs may be necessary to get you through a rough situation, or get
past a physical challenge degrading your health. There are situations where a
prescription is a daily necessity; there are also situations where we become
dependent on a prescription past the necessity. A medication may help you get
through a difficult situation, but the medication may also have side effects
which may be troubling. There is also the possible issue of dependency in some
cases. Neurofeedback, on the other hand, is a drug free, non-invasive process to
restore efficient brain regulation.

Who can Benefit from
Neurofeedback Training?

Originally, Neurofeedback was
used to promote relaxation by increasing Alpha. Today with advancements in
computers, software, and scientific research, Neurofeedback is effective in
improving a variety of conditions.

·Anxiety

·Concentration

·Decreased cognition

·Depression

·Fatigue

·Mild Brain Injury

·Stress

·Sleep issues

The brain governs our
physical, mental, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual functioning. The brain
runs our voluntary and involuntary processes.This means from the thoughts about what to do next, to your heartbeat and
breathing are regulated by your own “on board computer.” Many people can
benefit from increasing brain regulation.

You can
benefit from Neurofeedback if you want any of the following:

·Quieter mind

·Respond better to stress

·Improve attention

·Better sleep

·Decrease being overwhelmed in life

·Improve your enjoyment of life

Many people find benefit from
Neurofeedback: housewives, people
who want to keep their edge, students, college students, executives, retired
people who want to “stay sharp,” and people in transition. They report an
improvement in focus, clarity, quieter self-talk, attention, memory, lower
anxiety, better sleep, and more creativity. The effects of stress are less. One
person used a baseball analogy: “The balls are coming as fast as ever, but it
seems like I have more time to hit them.”

Neurofeedback training guides
the brain to more efficient regulation.This
leads to a “quieter brain.”Many
people say, “I have less noise.” By focusing on the electrical activity, the
body’s chemistry follows to a better place some would call “homeostasis.”

How is
Neurofeedback done?

It is a non-invasive
procedure no blood, and no pain.A
set of electrodes is placed on your head with a mousse like gel placed at each
site. During the training you watch an educational DVD that flickers along with
a bell ringing. The flickering and the bell automatically train your brain to
regulate.A session lasts about 55
minutes. At the end of session, most people feel relaxed and calm.After a few sessions, many people say something like, “This noise is
quieter,” or “My windshield is clean,” or “I am sleeping more
soundly,” or “My thinking is clearer.”

How many
sessions will it take to regulate my brain?

People will begin to
feel results in 5 training sessions. On average 10-20 sessions will
resolve most issues. Long standing issue of many years will take more sessions
to resolve. After the brain map is done, we have a better idea
of all that is going on in the brain and can make a better estimate.
Neurofeedback is not a magic bullet, but an effective,
proven scientific method of training the brain to regulate and promote good
regulation in the whole body system.